Most fancy pigeons are quite content to sit at home, looking pretty in their lofts and occasionally going to shows, but some pigeons thought it was time to go school! They went not to learn, but to teach!

Reggie Fester, our PRO in the Western Cape, was invited by the headmasters of Bokmakierie Primary and Blossom Street Primary Schools, both situated in the Athlone area, as well as Mountain Road Primary School in Woodstock and Grove Primary School in Claremont, to bring some fancy pigeons to their respective schools for a presentation to their learners.

These schools provide Grade R to Grade 7 education to young learners, with many learners coming from families that are severely financially disadvantaged. The schools also have little resources to engage learners in extramural activities, so it was off to school for the pigeons!

The pigeons were welcomed enthusiastically by the headmasters, staff and hundreds of excited faces of children. The presentation had to be done in stages to accommodate all the learners, but no-one was complaining. Reggie’s well-versed presentation provided a rare insight for these children into the fascinating world of fancy pigeon breeding as a competitive sport.

But that wasn’t all, many people keep fancy pigeons as pets and that is what the pigeons came to teach the learners. Keeping fancy pigeons as pets instills the owners with a sense of responsibility, it encourages respect for life other than your own, builds self-esteem, gives the child a sense of belonging, these are but a few of the desirable traits that we want to see in our youth today. So, by just being there, the pigeons must have taught some child some of these traits and the inherent associated intrinsic values.

The headmasters and educators have the vision to see to latent value of these fancy pigeon presentations on the next generation as can be seen in their letters of thanks to the Western Province Fancy Pigeon Club.